Single-cell atlas of domestic pig cerebral cortex and hypothalamus

The brain of the domestic pig(Sus scrofa domesticus)has drawn considerable attention due to its high similarities to that of humans.However,the cellular compositions of the pig brain(PB)remain elusive.Here we investigated the single-nucleus transcriptomic profiles of five regions of the PB(frontal lobe,parietal lobe,temporal lobe,occipital lobe,and hypothalamus)and identified 21 cell subpopulations.The cross-species comparison of mouse and pig hypothalamus revealed the shared and specific gene expression patterns at the single-cell resolution.Furthermore,we identified cell types and molecular pathways closely associated with neurological disorders,bridging the gap between gene mutations and pathogenesis.We reported,to our knowledge,the first single-cell atlas of domestic pig cerebral cortex and hypothalamus combined with a comprehensive analysis across species,providing extensive resources for future research regarding neural science,evolutionary developmental biology,and regenerative medicine.

Ancient DNA reveals the maternal genetic history of East Asian domestic pigs

Zoo-archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that pigs were domesticated independently in Central China and Eastern Anatolia along with the development of agricultural communities and civilizations.However,the genetic history of domestic pigs,especially in China,has not been fully explored.In this study,we generate 42 complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from~7500-to 2750-year-old individuals from the Yellow River basin.Our results show that the maternal genetic continuity of East Asian domestic pigs dates back to at least the Early to Middle Neolithic.In contrast,the Near Eastern ancestry in European domestic pigs saw a near-complete genomic replacement by the European wild boar.The majority of East Asian domestic pigs share close haplotypes,and the most recent common ancestor of most branches dates back to less than 20,000 years before present,inferred using new substitution rates of whole mitogenomes or combined protein-coding regions.Two major population expansion events of East Asian domestic pigs coincided with changes in climate,widespread adoption of introduced crops,and the development of agrarian societies.These findings add to our understanding of the maternal genetic composition and help to complete the picture of domestic pig evolutionary history in East Asia.

Investigation on Infectious Agents of Aborted Pig Fetuses and Its Correlation with PRRSV MLV Vaccine

Infectious agents causing aborted fetus problems in domestic pigs were investigated in this study. More than 10 different infectious agents were known to cause abortion in swine and the major eight viruses among them were inspected. One hundred twelve samples of aborted fetuses from nine provinces in South Korea were collected during April to November, 2013 in this study for the diagnosis of infectious agents causing abortions in pigs. Eight major infection viruses were examined in this study mainly using various diagnostic kits and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR）. Positive rate of the detection differed from each viruses. In this study, the main focus was the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus （PRRSV）, which took the second large portion in the positive rate of detection, and then its ORF5 gene was compared with modified live virus （MLV） vaccine strain to figure out the influence of vaccine on disease. Between four positive samples＇ sequence, two of them were 99.9%-100% similar to MLV vaccine strain and two other samples were 88.6%-92.7% similar. Similarity rate of the sequences between the vaccine and virus from aborted fetuses are very crucial, because it implies that abortion in swine can be made due to the usage of vaccine not only by the infection of field virus, and if MLV vaccine actually do have an impact on the infection, usage of the vaccine should be reconsidered.